WWCD
by oahfoah
Summary: What could have happened if Claudia followed Artie at the end of Implosion when he confronts MacPherson. Rated M to be safe... and for blood and stabbings


Disclaimer: I do NOT own Warehouse 13.

_This is it. The sword is inside this building_.

Artie had stopped just outside the metal door to the hanger deck. He reaches into his bag and out of habit, takes out his Tesla. Thinking of the danger he was about to put himself in, he dropped the Tesla back into the bag and decided to arm himself with the more deadly gun. Right before opening the door, he takes a deep breath, trying to calm his nerves.

_This is just another snag and bag._

Opening the door quickly and quietly he walks into the huge, dark room. He gathers his surroundings; shelves around the inside of the walls, private airplane in the middle of the room, the rest is just empty space except for a familiar man holding an old, Chinese styled box.

"Don't move." Artie says as he raises his gun and points it at the man. "Mr. Ogawa, when did you get here?"

Mr. Ogawa looks slightly surprised to see Artie standing in front of him. But before he can even open his mouth to answer, Artie hears the soft sound of air being sliced apart and Mr. Ogawa's head rolls to the floor, followed a few seconds later by the rest of his body.

A sudden realization fell over Artie. James MacPherson was here, and he had the sword.

"Hello Arthur."

"James?"

"It's good to see you after all these years."

"I wish I could say the same."

"Not while you are pointing a gun at me, or trying to."

"Ha, well, you know. You are an invisible guy with a sword. I think you might have the advantage over me."

"Ah but you have two on one. Hardly fair. I'm just evening the odds."

"What are you tal-" Artie stopped short as he spotted the red haired teenager coming out from behind the stacks.

"Uh, hey Artie.." She said as she slowly moved her way into the open.

Artie's shock over Mr. Ogawa's murder was nothing more than an afterthought now. "Claudia? Wha-what are you doing here?"

"O, um, you know, couldn't let you have all the fun" the teenager quipped, attempting to cover her fear. Her shaky voice didn't help her cause and it was obvious to Artie she was second-guessing her decision to follow him.

"Get out of here, NOW." Artie didn't want to imagine what could happen to her with MacPherson here.

Before Claudia could take a step the ominous voice of the invisible MacPherson was heard.

"O come now Arthur. Don't be angry at her, she just wanted to make sure her mentor was okay. You should be glad you still have someone who cares for you. For now," the last words hardly more than a whisper, remaining out of sight.

"James. James," Artie was circling, looking everywhere, desperately trying to find even a shadow that would give away MacPherson's position. He could hear Claudia's shallow breathing a few feet behind him. Wondering why she hadn't moved, he heard her whisper, "Artie."

When he turned toward her voice, her face was pale with fear and what looked like pain and, apology? Artie followed her gaze as she lowered her head to look at her hands. They were clutching the left side of her stomach. She slowly opened her hands revealing a slit about an inch long on her flat stomach with blood flowing freely from it.

"Oh my god, CLAUDIA!"

Artie moved faster than anyone would have thought possible as he ran towards his young protégé. He caught her just as her legs gave out and gently lowered her to the ground. "Claudia. Claudia." Artie was desperate, trying to keep her awake, and alive. "Hey, hey" Artie forced a smile, "it's ok, you are going to be okay. Just-just keep pressure on it, okay?"

"Artie," Claudia stared into his eyes. Guilt spread through his body as he looked back at the skinny girl fighting back tears. He knew she would not give MacPherson the satisfaction. Artie reached for his bad and took out a piece of cloth. He gave it to Claudia to hold on her wound.

"Don't worry. Everything's going to be fine. Just keep pressure on it." Artie smiled again, trying to keep her hopes up.

Suddenly remembering MacPherson was still there, rage and furry took over his guilt and he yelled, "JAMES! What happened to you? Attacking innocent, young, people?"

He got up, moving away from Claudia in the hope would be out of any more danger while staying close enough that she could still see him.

"I know we've had our differences, and I know Carol, happened. You've always had your own ideas, your objections to warehouse policy, but I mean, James. Killing people? When did you turn into that?"

"Artie!"

MacPherson had reappeared behind Artie and Claudia did all she could to warn him.

"I woke up Arthur."

Artie shot his gun in the direction of the man he once knew but without luck. MacPherson had disappeared again. The shot had scared Claudia and he heard her stifle a scream. But he knew she was in pain and no matter how strong she is, he wasn't sure how much longer she could stay awake with that amount of blood loss. The next thing he knew, a strong force knocked Artie's gun out of his hands. With the sound of the gun hitting the cement floor, Artie's last line of defense was gone, he started to panic. Thankfully MacPherson began to talk, giving him time to think.

"Once I was out from under Mrs. Frederick's iron hand, I could see the world more clearly."

Artie was circling again, searching for anything that could help him. He needed to find something, _anything_, to defend himself and Claudia. Artie glanced in her direction, the teenager was semi-conscious and the blood… the blood was turning into a pool on the floor around her midsection. That damn sword had left two holes in her small body, two ways for life to leave. Two ways for pain and death to sneak in. And Claudia was barely holding the cloth on the front wound. He needed something. He needed MacPherson to hurry up and do whatever it was he was going to do so he could help Claudia.

That's when he saw it. A big fire extinguisher. Not exactly what he was looking for but maybe it could let him see James, and maybe provoke him to do something. Anything was better than listening to him ramble on about how life sucks while Claudia was in desperate need of a hospital.

"Well that's a little pathetic, isn't it James? Blaming everybody else but yourself. I don't think you have found clarity. I don't think your ego could stand the light." Artie said as he moved his way toward the extinguisher, hoping James wouldn't notice.

"I'd love to discuss this with you at length, or maybe one of your new agents. Lattimer and Bering. But they are so raw, so untrained, so corruptible."

"Corruptible? Yea, well, not anymore after you've just _stabbed_ their friend." Finally reaching the extinguisher, Artie decided to make his move. "I promise you are going to pay for this. You are never going to get anywhere close to any of them, as long as I live!"

"Arthur, you can still read my mind."

Artie reached for the extinguisher and shot it in front of him, hoping to reveal MacPherson. Through the white mist, he could start to make out the deadly man, but it is too late and MacPherson is on him. He uses the sword to knock the extinguisher from Artie's hands and taking advantage of Artie's vulnerability, stabs his old friend in his chest.

"Ahhh!" Through the pain, Artie could see his former friend's smug look on his face and then he hears Claudia's half scream "Artie!"

As he falls to his knees with the sword still lodged in his chest, MacPherson whispers in his ear "You always hurt the one you love."

Artie didn't know what to do. Here he is, on his knees with the sharpest sword in the world making mincemeat out of his shoulder with a psychotic man kneeling a foot away from him and a young girl who depends on him laying in her own blood, barely conscious, less than 20 feet away. James was going to get away, he was going to take the sword and go after other people, starting with Pete and Myka, and he was going to leave Artie and Claudia to die…

"Artie?"

Artie never thought he'd be so happy to hear Pete's voice. He could hear Pete's and Myka's footsteps echoing off the floor as they entered the hanger. MacPherson's smug look changed to surprise and he tried to yank the sword out from Artie's chest. Determined to at least keep the sword from James, Artie held on with his life and refused to let James take it. After a few pulls, James realized this was a losing game, and not wanting to get caught, made a run for it out the other door.

"Artie! Claudia!"

Pete and Myka ran into the room immediately noticing Claudia and then seeing Artie with a sword in his chest. Myka stopped to help Claudia while Pete went to check on Artie. By this time, Claudia's skin was sweaty and pale, and she was unconscious. Myka paused, in shock, taken aback by the amount of blood, but only for a split second before feeling the young girl's wrist for a pulse. After a heart-wrenching few seconds, there was a beat. It was so faint Myka could have second-guessed but refused to think she was gone. She immediately took off her jacket and wrapped it around the wounds, hoping to stop anymore blood that tried to escape.

Meanwhile, Pete went to try and help Artie. "What happened?" Pete asked frantically.

"Well it was the only way I knew to get the sword." Artie answered sheepishly. After a pause to let Pete take in his answer, he continued, "Well can you just hurry up and pull it out?"

"Wait, woah, woah, now wait a minute, are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's the sharpest sword ever made, it should slide out just like butter. But, just do it really, really fast."

Pete, hesitant at first, grabbed hold and pulled as hard and fast as he could. After a short yelp of pain on Artie's part, they all fell silent as a familiar sound of metal on cement came from behind them. A small round metal container was slowly making its way toward the agents.

"Is that one of those implosion grenades?"

With one word, "Yes," Myka called Pete to come and pick up Claudia while she helped Artie. Not wanting to see the aftermath of the bomb, they ran, Pete carrying a now unconscious Claudia and Artie being led by Myka, out the way they all came in.

Knowing there were only seconds before it went off, Pete ran behind a parked car about twenty yards from the hanger. Myka and Artie followed. The implosion grenade went off and the three could feel the strength of the bomb from even behind the car. All four of them, and the car were being pulled toward the now crumbling hanger. After a minute, they stopped moving and believing they were all safe, Myka called 911.

A few hours later, Artie stood outside of a white, sterilized room. With his arm now in a sling, and under the influence of a few painkillers, he looked through the window at the weak, red head still unconscious, lying on the hospital bed. She had gained some color back, thanks to the massive blood infusion, and her heart beat was back to normal. 'Just a matter of time before she wakes up' said the nice nurse. But she will always have the scars on the front and back of her stomach. Artie didn't know how to feel. If she just listened to him for once and stayed away... But if he just told everyone what was really going on in the first place she might have understood…

Pete was in the cafeteria probably looking for cookies and Myka was sitting in a chair next to Claudia. She hadn't left the young girls side, even after the doctor ensured all of them that she was going to be fine. It was like she didn't trust Artie to protect Claudia, in fact, ever since the paramedics put Claudia in the ambulance; Myka hadn't said a word to Artie.

"Hey, Artie."

Artie jumped as Pete's voice tore him from his thoughts. He was carrying more cookies than were necessary for one person.

"She still asleep?"

"Yea."

After a few minutes Myka turned around and waved for them to come in. Pete went in first, followed by Artie.

"She's awake." It was the first thing Myka had said to Artie since the incident.

The red haired girl looked a little out of it as she slowly opened her eyes and focused on the people surrounding her.

Myka spoke first, "Hey you, how are you feeling?"

"Um, like a crazy person just stabbed me in my stomach," she answered as she reflexively reached her hand to her side, feeling the bandage. A pang of guilt hit Artie once again.

"Huh, well you know what fixes any illness?"

Everyone looked at Pete in confusion.

"Cookies," he answered his own question as he offered Claudia one of the many in his arms. That gained an 'I can't believe you just said that' look from Myka, complete ignorance from Artie but a small smile from Claudia.

"Totally."

~After that it goes to the next scene in the episode, with Pete, Myka and Leena putting away the sword and Artie and Mrs. Frederick watching on the surveillance.~

:: This is my first ever fanfic. Writing isn't my strong suit which sucks because I like to think I have good ideas. So yea, reviews are awesome. ::


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